Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the difference between the blood donations by people with rare blood types and the demand for such donations.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) has a number of initiatives to engage with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) donors who have rare blood types including working with a number of local charities; partnering with MOBO for the #Represent campaign and launching a BAME toolkit, which can be used by Members of Parliament to increase blood and organ donors in their constituencies.

NHSBT maintains a regular supply to hospitals of all blood groups and types, including for patients with complex needs and those that require frequent blood transfusions such as sickle cell disease sufferers.

Some rare blood types are only found within BAME communities. Although 14% of the population of England are black or South Asian less than 3% of people who have given blood in the last year are from these communities.